JOIN USMalayali students stranded in China..Kerala tourism feels coronavirus' heat
Even as 2,500 odd Malayalis from China and various other Coronavirus hit countries reached Kerala over the last couple of weeks and are under surveillance, many more Malayalis were still reportedly held up in China.
A group of 21 Malayali students of medicine from China sent a distress video message on Thursday seeking help. They said that they were stranded at Kunming airport in China. Though they planned to travel to India via Singapore, the authorities at airport denied permission to travel citing that no persons, other than citizens of Singapore, would be allowed to land in Singapore. They also said that no direct flights to India were available.
Sources said that the Minister of State for External Affairs, V Muraleedharan, was in touch with the Indian embassy officials to make arrangements for their travel.
Meanwhile, a couple of Chinese citizens who came down to Kerala as tourists were also kept under surveillance.
While no fresh coronavirus cases were reported in Kerala yet, the state health department was carrying out massive awareness programmes to ensure that every one who recently came from any of the coronavirus hit countries were subjected to medical screening.
Meanwhile, the Kerala tourism sector started feeling the heat of the coronavirus infection as many foreign tourists cancelled visits to Kerala.
Kerala tourism minister Kadakampally Surendran said that many hotels in the state already suffered cancellation of bookings for February and March. The house boat industry of Alappuzha and Kottayam are also having fewer tourists now.